16:52:48 | 2012-11-07
(New York, NY) — For more than 90 years, one of the most iconic buildings along the New York City skyline, the, has used lights as a way to commemorate some of the biggest days of the year.
The building has illuminated its towers in a variety of colors designed to celebrate holidays, charities and other events. However this tradition reached a whole new level this election day, November 6th, when the Empire State Building utilized advanced new LED lights to keep all of NYC informed of the all the election coverage.
Along the towers of the city’s most prized landmark LED lights in red and blue were used to display the respective vote tallies of each candidate in the election. Current president and democratic nominee Barack Obama’s tally was represented in blue while republican challenger Mitt Romney’s tally was represented in red. The lights were powered by the new custom LED panel technology and state-of-the-art lighting system the building recently had installed by Phillips Color Kinetics. This was the inaugural event for the lighting system and for this approach to representing the election results.
The tradition was berthed from the 1932 election when a searchlight was used to reveal to NYC that a New York born candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President of the United States. However, with more than 1,454 feet of building to use as a base, the Empire State Building had much more potential in terms of announcing important information regarding the light display. This is how this light display, depicting the candidates’ race to 270 votes was born. Tuesday evening, the tower was lit in red and blue all night as the votes were tallied and while CNN World Wide provided a live televised broadcast of the towers and their display of the presidential race.
While all eyes from around New York City and around the country were fixated on the iconic Manhattan building, to watch the neck and neck race progress, late in the evening the building performed its final act when it transformed into all blue. The final display of the evening was a signal to all of New York City and to those watching the towers throughout the United States that current president, President Barack Obama had won the 2012 election and would be serving four more year as this country’s president.
